Mysterious water leak

I was out today shopping for a new 7 seater for the Mrs and took the c2 for a blast. The salesman met us before we even got past the show room to view the stuff in the yard. When I came back to my car it had pissed out .5-1 litre at a guess of nice rusty looking water. Had a look under and it's this pipe that's the culprit, or the best I can see by sticking my head under. Weird thing is, I haven't lost the water from the expansion bottle. I know I have a very slight leak to investigate and have been topping it up but very little needed. This pipe is always damp but never a drop on the ground. I had to drive 10-12 miles after the incident without a fault. Temp gauge sat just over 80 as always. Any ideas?

Just realised I haven't stuck the picture up. :frustrated:

Where on the car is the leak ? front back etc ? Coolant lvl wont drop untill the air has reached the coolant tank ... maybe a few miles . That amount of fluid loss is what i would consider rather large in one hit .

Aghh ok .. Either chop then end off the pipe or replace it .. replace being the best option . https://www.deroure.com/diagrams.asp?MAK=3&MDL=25&TBL=2526&SMA=&SMO=0&ST=&SC=0 i " think " its no. 41 or 42 here ... might be 27 though ... hard to work out .

How's it goin demort? It's not the leak so much that worries me, as the lack of drop at the bottle. Probably closer to 1/2 a litre of loss but I was thinking then would there be an air lock. The temperature gauge never budged, apart from another stop on route to look at another bus,

The coolant tank is much bigger than you think - have a look at MCs recent photo. You only see a small part of the tank when you are looking in the engine bay! I think - from memory - that to top up the tank from the low level to max level is about 2 liters, so if it dropped half a liter, you mightn't notice it. Particularly in the area around the bottle seam/lip.

2 litres sounds like a big 1. I know it's a decent size tank but that sounds a bit much. Mind you, it might have solved my query

If rusty me thinks its due a flush and new coolant! Ian

Yeah Ian. A flush is definitely on the cards. I'll sort the leak and go from there.

Got the car up and had a look. It seems it's the pipe above that's leaking and dripping down onto the other. Pipes look to be in decent condition but the clips were rotten. They broke as soon as I touched them. I simply replaced them with dubilee clips. I ran it up to temperature and there's no sign of the leak now so fingers crossed that's it

Broken clips

Job done

I've looked at those clamps and wondered about longevity. I've been thinking about a coolant refresh and wondered about changing to quality jubilee clips. What is the concensus on the original clips? Ian

Stuff me .. you jammy git !! You cant get a cheaper repair than that :thumb: Ive not seen a clip like that fall appart before .. but they are certainly showing their age these days and i usually replace then when im working on your cars .

The rest of the clips that I could see weren't too bad. It's maybe just that those ones sit quite low and get all the abuse from road grime. I'd say the rest will definitely need to be checked as I wouldn't want to be stuck somewhere for the sake of a 20p part. I'll make sure there's no more leaks before I flush it. My air cons not working, not sure if it's a regas job or a bit more sinister but I might just rip it out and do without it as I'm more of a windows down type of guy. That should help with the temperatures, not that there's any issues but no point having something I'd never use